(OT) Firefox 1.5 and Extensions

For those who have not yet noticed, the Firefox 1.5 Release Candidate is
out:

http://www.mozilla.org/products/fire.../1.5beta1.html

I have a little question: regardless of whether the beta or the final
version gets used, can anyone estimate how badly existing extensions will
be affected? What about themes? Will hidden settings (accessible via the
JavaScript and about: config) be thrown away? How 'damaging' in the short
term would a move to 1.5 be?

I'd greatly appreciate your advice

Roy

PS - If no advice is given by the end of the day, I will back up fully and
experiment...

Previously in alt.html, Roy Schestowitz <newsgroups (AT) schestowitz (DOT) com>
said:

I have a little question: regardless of whether the beta or the final
version gets used, can anyone estimate how badly existing extensions will
be affected? What about themes? Will hidden settings (accessible via the
JavaScript and about: config) be thrown away? How 'damaging' in the short
term would a move to 1.5 be?

I have no idea, but I'd be interested to know your results. ;-)

--
Mark Parnell
http://clarkecomputers.com.au
alt.html FAQ :: http://html-faq.com/

Roy Schestowitz wrote:

For those who have not yet noticed, the Firefox 1.5 Release Candidate is
out:

http://www.mozilla.org/products/fire.../1.5beta1.html

I have a little question: regardless of whether the beta or the final
version gets used, can anyone estimate how badly existing extensions will
be affected? What about themes? Will hidden settings (accessible via the
JavaScript and about: config) be thrown away? How 'damaging' in the short
term would a move to 1.5 be?

I'd greatly appreciate your advice

Install FF1.5b into its own directory and run multiple versions.

--
Hywel

__/ [hywel.jenkins (AT) gmail (DOT) com] on Friday 09 September 2005 08:34 \__

Roy Schestowitz wrote:
For those who have not yet noticed, the Firefox 1.5 Release Candidate is
out:

http://www.mozilla.org/products/fire.../1.5beta1.html

I have a little question: regardless of whether the beta or the final
version gets used, can anyone estimate how badly existing extensions will
be affected? What about themes? Will hidden settings (accessible via the
JavaScript and about: config) be thrown away? How 'damaging' in the short
term would a move to 1.5 be?

I'd greatly appreciate your advice

Install FF1.5b into its own directory and run multiple versions.

I have tried that before with Park Deer (near the announcement of 1.1, which
was later conceded). It caused all sorts of trouble, which was good
evidence as to why my backups are ever so necessary.

Roy

PS - Speaking of backups, ispell dropped all of the words which I 'taught'
it about 3 days ago. I have no idea why/how this happened, but luckily I
could restore from a June backup of dot files.

--
Roy S. Schestowitz | Warning 0x12C: ispell feels tired
http://Schestowitz.com | SuSE Linux | PGP-Key: 74572E8E
9:05am up 15 days 10:57, 3 users, load average: 0.81, 0.79, 0.65

__/ [Roy Schestowitz] on Friday 09 September 2005 09:10 \__

__/ [hywel.jenkins (AT) gmail (DOT) com] on Friday 09 September 2005 08:34 \__

Roy Schestowitz wrote:
For those who have not yet noticed, the Firefox 1.5 Release Candidate is
out:

http://www.mozilla.org/products/fire.../1.5beta1.html

I have a little question: regardless of whether the beta or the final
version gets used, can anyone estimate how badly existing extensions
will be affected? What about themes? Will hidden settings (accessible
via the JavaScript and about: config) be thrown away? How 'damaging' in
the short term would a move to 1.5 be?

I'd greatly appreciate your advice

Install FF1.5b into its own directory and run multiple versions.

I have tried that before with Park Deer (near the announcement of 1.1,
which was later conceded). It caused all sorts of trouble, which was good
evidence as to why my backups are ever so necessary.

Roy

PS - Speaking of backups, ispell dropped all of the words which I 'taught'
it about 3 days ago. I have no idea why/how this happened, but luckily I
could restore from a June backup of dot files.

Make that Deer Park, not Park Deer. That name was a recipe for confusion.
*smile*

Roy

__/ [Mark Parnell] on Friday 09 September 2005 08:11 \__

Previously in alt.html, Roy Schestowitz <newsgroups (AT) schestowitz (DOT) com
said:

I have a little question: regardless of whether the beta or the final
version gets used, can anyone estimate how badly existing extensions will
be affected? What about themes? Will hidden settings (accessible via the
JavaScript and about: config) be thrown away? How 'damaging' in the short
term would a move to 1.5 be?

I have no idea, but I'd be interested to know your results. ;-)

Okay, I have just tried the beta The result was an unpleasant mess involving
broken extensions, themes and a few other unpleasant things. My conclusion
would be similar to the one from July when I first tried Deep Park and
struggled < http://schestowitz.com/Weblog/archiv.../09/deer-park/ >.
I hope that the final transition to 1.5 would be a smooth and painless one.
The "About" section has the label Firefox 1.4.

Roy

Okay, I have just tried the beta The result was an unpleasant mess
involving
broken extensions, themes and a few other unpleasant things. My conclusion
would be similar to the one from July when I first tried Deep Park and
struggled < http://schestowitz.com/Weblog/archiv.../09/deer-park/
.
I hope that the final transition to 1.5 would be a smooth and painless
one.

My experience is that this happens every time a new version comes out. I
wish they could find a way to use the same method of communicating with
extensions and not mess it up. But the truth is the most popular extensions
and themes usually catch up within a couple of weeks.

__/ [BigK] on Friday 09 September 2005 18:58 \__

Okay, I have just tried the beta The result was an unpleasant mess
involving
broken extensions, themes and a few other unpleasant things. My
conclusion would be similar to the one from July when I first tried Deep
Park and struggled
http://schestowitz.com/Weblog/archiv.../09/deer-park/
.
I hope that the final transition to 1.5 would be a smooth and painless
one.

My experience is that this happens every time a new version comes out. I
wish they could find a way to use the same method of communicating with
extensions and not mess it up. But the truth is the most popular
extensions and themes usually catch up within a couple of weeks.

Those that are still maintained, you mean...

With unpopular extensions, the developer has little or no motivation to
adapt or to fix. This implies that we might never be able to regain some
extensions we depend on. I hope they will still maintain and patch up
1.0.x. The critical patches at the least...

Roy

--
Roy S. Schestowitz | "In hell, treason is the work of angels"
http://Schestowitz.com | SuSE Linux | PGP-Key: 74572E8E
5:20am up 16 days 7:12, 7 users, load average: 1.04, 1.81, 1.96

__/ [kchayka] on Friday 09 September 2005 16:39 \__

Roy Schestowitz wrote:

__/ [hywel.jenkins (AT) gmail (DOT) com] on Friday 09 September 2005 08:34 \__

Install FF1.5b into its own directory and run multiple versions.

I have tried that before with Park Deer (near the announcement of 1.1,
which was later conceded). It caused all sorts of trouble

Make sure you don't share a profile between the 2 versions.

I have had to restore my profile (50 MB in size) twice in the past two days.
Too much tinkering led to a lot of trouble. I promised myself that I would
avoid Deer Park, but I always get tempted to take advantage of recent
builds. One thing I long for is search within textareas. I use search bars
to do this at the moment...

I'd still discourage myself from attempting an upgrade again... *frown* it
leads to frustration and anxiety.

Roy

--
Roy S. Schestowitz | "In hell, treason is the work of angels"
http://Schestowitz.com | SuSE Linux | PGP-Key: 74572E8E
5:20am up 16 days 7:12, 7 users, load average: 1.04, 1.81, 1.96